| Summary: |
Project H2-UI4PT: H2 Usage Improvement for Public Transport is a research and development project focused on the development of innovative technological solutions which will allow the hybridization of an electric city bus into a new hybrid fuel cell solution for short medium distance bus services. Therefore, the main purpose is to design and develop a new and more efficient hybridized energy production system with an energy storage system buffering peak loads, boosting acceleration, and allowing energy recovery from braking, thus, ensuring the best performance in dynamic operation modes related to short-medium distance bus services. In order to fulfill this purpose, Project H2-UI4PT will address four key areas: i) to investigate and optimize a fuel cell hydrogen based system applied to short-medium distances; (ii) to develop a new power converter capable of promoting an optimized interface between the electricity storage system and the DC bus; (iii) to develop an intelligent management system that controls the dual-energy sources in an optimized way; (iv) to develop a heating/cooling system using waste heat from the
fuel cell. Project H2-UI4PT will leverage the efforts of two entities from the electric mobility R&D ecosystem, namely CaetanoBus, with solid competencies on the fields addressed by this project, and two
departments from FEUP (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering) with proven experience in energy and mobility industries. Moreover, the Project will benefit from the involvement of a passenger transport company, Barraqueiro, as earlyadopter of the new hybrid fuel cell bus. |